If it doesn't taste good, why eat it?

dessert

If you are anything like me then you can’t refuse the bounty of apples overflowing the farmers markets at this time of year. Or better yet, you’ve gone picking and have an abundance of beautiful fruits to use. There are Cortlands and Empires, Macouns and McIntosh, Red Delicious and Ginger Gold, Spencers, Ida Reds…. this list keeps going. I am a big fan of apples in a pie and I love to mix it up and use a variety of different apples so that each bite is different, some sweet and soft, some tart and crisp.

This particular recipe is based on the Weight Watchers version of an apple crumble pie, so it’s a bit leaner on the butter use than a typical pie. I subbed in whole wheat pastry flour for white, and I chose to use dark brown sugar in the crumble because of its intensity of flavor.

Ingredients

Crust

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

2 tablespoons water (maybe a touch more)

Filling

4 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced 1/4-inch thick

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon water

Crumble

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

1/2 cup rolled oats

5 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

Directions

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400ºF

Spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray

To make the crust: combine the flour, sugar and salt in bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade and pulse to combine

Scatter the butter over the flour mixture; pulse until dough resembles coarse meal. Slowly add water, adding another tablespoon if necessary, until the dough comes together

Place the dough in the prepared pie pan and press it up the sides and around the bottom to form a crust; prick the bottom of the crust with a fork

To make the filling: combine all filling ingredients in a medium bowl and toss gently to combine

Spread evenly over the crust

To make the crumble: to a food processor fitted with a blade add the oats, flour and sugar; pulse to combine, then add butter chunks, pulse again, and scatter over apples

Bake for 20 minutes

Reduce heat to 350ºF and continue baking until both crust and crumble are golden and apples are juicy, about 30 to 40 minutes

You’ll need to let the pie set up for about half an hour after baking before you should attempt to cut and serve it.

The tart is somewhat of an archnemesis to me. It’s the dough, you see, it hates me. It has such simple ingredients: a little butter, a little sugar, some flour, salt, and egg- how could one screw this up, right? Well I could, and have, several times. This is where Smitten comes in. She took Dorie‘s recipe and she worked it and she published it and she explained that we need not be afraid of it because she had conquered it- and she was right!

I tried this tart shell recipe once last fall and loved the flavor, but the texture did not come together right for me. I was impatient, you see. This time I took the time and had the patience, and it paid off. The dough is like shortbread in flavor and consistency. In this particular instance, I used local peaches from the Open Square Farmer’s Market in Holyoke. I baked them into the pillowy love of a goat cheese custard. It was a marriage made in heaven.

Rice pudding can be a great way to use up left-over rice (unless, of course, you’re me and typically cook your grains in a savory meat stock). It’s a little sweet and a lot creamy and, this version at least, full of a variety of textures. I particularly like to use Jasmine rice because of its fragrant floral notes, but really you can use any grain that you like- be it white, brown, or purple. If you use something other than jasmine rice, I would suggest adding a splash of pure vanilla extract.

Ingredients:

1 cup jasmine rice

2 cans coconut milk (lite if that’s your preference)

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 cup raisins and/or currants and/or dried cranberries

1/4 cup chopped raw cashews

1/4 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut

Directions:

Put the jasmine rice and 2 cups of coconut milk in a small sauce pan with the cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Once boiling, immediately reduce the heat to low, give the rice one stir to be sure that it’s not suck to the bottom of the pan, cover and allow to simmer for 20 minutes

Place the cooked rice in a mixing bowl, remove the cinnamon stick, and add the raisins/currants/cranberries, half of the cashews & half of the coconut, and stir

If the mixture is dry, add additional coconut milk until it looks creamy

Scatter the remaining cashews & coconut over the top of the pudding and either serve warm immediately, or cover and chill overnight

Personally, I think that this dish makes a wonderful dessert but is equally as good as a breakfast. It also travels well and is easy to make ahead.

A while back I had tried out Heidi’s recipe for a healthier version of the standard peanut butter cookie and really enjoyed them. Then the other day I was working on new recipe development for a makeover of the Peanut Butter Blossom and couldn’t get the phrase “peanut-butter-jelly-time” out of my head the whole time that I was measuring and mixing and baking and cooling, and I had to do something about that. My solution was to take a healthier peanut butter cookie, make a welt in the top of it with the back side of my cookie scoop, and fill it with a tart raspberry jam that I had picked up a the Tuesday Market by Beaumont’s Berries which is sweetened with nothing but the berries and some honey. The pairing was a match made in heaven! The salty peanut butter cookie topped with the tart berry jam was wonderful and very satisfying as a sweet snack. What’s even better is that with the lacks of eggs in this cookie, you can eat the dough!

I have a dear friend named Roxanne. Those who know her well call her Rocky. Rocky is a giving and loving person, always there to listen to a friend, offer advice, lend her opinion. Rocky also happens to be famous for her cookies, and I mean that. She’s been asked to make them for parties at a salon, for people’s backyard shindigs, she’s made them for co-workers. She willingly shares her recipe and I’ve used it over and over. In fact I have a family member who swears that Rocky cookies helped her survive through a rough patch of menopause. My weight-lifting friend asks me to make them as her cheat after competitions. I’ve made them for constipated children who don’t get enough fiber in their diet, and for adults after surgery. I make them for myself as a snack. Unlike conventional cookies, they’re packed with healthy fats and fruits, nuts, and energy-supplying seeds. No butter, no brown sugar, no white sugar- you get my drift.

This cookie is hearty. It can be made with every ingredient in the list, or only a few of them. You can play with combinations for flavor such as pumpkin and walnut, or chocolate and cherries, or sunflower and raisin. Personally, I love to have a little bit of dark chocolate, lots of different fruits (prune, fig, raisin, cranberry), some wheat berries, a mixture of flours (barley and whole wheat)- a little bit of everything.

The recipe may confuse some as it calls for a handful of this and that ingredient. It means that, literally. The dough should not be terribly stiff when complete, but if it’s too runny just add a bit more flour to the mix.

2 cups old fashioned oats

1 cup steel cut oats

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour (or oat or barley flour)

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon cinnamon (can also add a dash of cloves and/or nutmeg)

Sprinkle of sea salt

Handful of bittersweet chocolate chunks

Handful of raisins

Handful of dried cranberries

Handful of walnuts

Handful of wheat germ

Handful of flax seed meal

Handful of seeds if you like them (sunflower, pepitas, flax, sesame, etc.)